MDP Celebrates 35 Years of Milestones

- What begins with a parasitic
infection spread by the bites

of black flies living near fast.

Flowing rivers can lead to
onco psychiatrists known

as river blindness For centuries,

people living across Africa

and later Latin America are plagued by one

of the toughest diseases
in history to overcome.

By the mid 1970s as river
blindness ravaged outta control,

the Onco Schisis control
program was formed to try

and put an end to the disease spearheaded

by the United Nations with
bilateral funding agencies,

a campaign of intensive aerial
larva society was rolled out

across West Africa.

However, the strategy proved

to be ineffective in
rainforest areas, too costly

and was eventually abandoned.

It was in 1978 that Merck and Co Inc.

Scientist, Dr. William Campbell,

suggested a breakthrough treatment

for river blindness using
a common anti parasitic

drug ivermectin.

Following successful clinical trials,

the human formulation
was developed in 1987,

taken in a single dose once a year,

it alleviated the symptoms of the disease.

And so Meza was born.

Later that year, Merck made
the unprecedented decision

to donate Meza as much as
needed for as long as needed.

Becoming the first company in history.

To make a commitment to this
scale, distributing millions

of treatments requires a
complex infrastructure.

Non-governmental organizations, the OCP

and Local Ministries of
Health, formed mobile teams

to distribute the medicine

to the most heavily affected areas.

In 1992, onco psis elimination program

for the Americas extended the reach

of Meza distribution to another continent.

By 1995, the World Health
Organization, the World Bank

and the donor community
formed the African program

for onco psis control
to expand distribution

of meza across Africa,
helping nations take ownership

of the control effort and join forces.

Armies of volunteers
were trained under this

community led model.

Distribution of Meza rapidly
scaled up The success

of mechan distribution for
river blindness inspired efforts

to address another
neglected tropical disease,

lymphatic psoriasis.

It was discovered that
the combination of mechan

with another anti parasitic
drug albendazole donated

by GSK proved to be highly
effective in eliminating lf.

And so in 1988, the mandate of the Mear

and donation program was expanded
to include both diseases.

All the hard work started
to pay off in the Americas

as Columbia became the first country

to eliminate river blindness.

This remarkable achievement
proved the disease can be

eliminated permanently.

Several countries in Africa,

and the Yemen soon follow suit
when LF is also eliminated.

In 2021,

the World Health Organization
launched a roadmap taking

what was a control program
into a global effort

to eliminate transmission
of both river blindness

and atic psoriasis amongst other diseases.

After 35 years, 4.8
billion treatments donated

and 25 countries protected.

Meck and Co Inc. CEO Rob
Davis recently said of Meza,

we continue to make the
commitment to provide meza free

as long as it's needed.

Only with sustained commitment

and growing partnerships can we hope

to finally break the
chain of transmission so

that one day river blindness

and emphatic psoriasis can
be diseases of the past.